These days pretty much every professional service you need to run a business is no longer a relationship, it’s a product.
Accountancy used to be a relationship, now you can get Xero for $35 a month. Sales and cold calling are products, and automated at that. Design tools are products. There’s adobe if you know what you’re doing and Canva if you don’t.
Even legal stuff is being productised.
Products make things easy. Easy to buy, easy to use. Knowing what’s inside the box gives certainty. But you know, there’s always one isn’t there? One stubborn process that, like jelly, remains too elusive to pin down.
Idea generation. Thinking stuff up.
Coming up with ideas to solve problems has always been pitched as a mysterious process, a vague open ended affair that doesn’t have to be.
I’ve turned my thinking things up process into a simple product called the ‘one-pager’. I’ve done it in collaboration with AI, who I think might very well be a suit, given the charming bedside manner.
You could use the thinking to drive revenue, generate leads, raise awareness, change behaviour or put out fires.
Anyway, if it’s a failure I can always blame it on a hallucination - theirs, not mine - so winner, winner, chicken dinner.
A single page is discipline. Stuff has to go, other wise it’s a two pager, or a 120 page deck if you don’t keep an eye on things
The result is a crafted story that ends up being about a four minute read. I write the idea as a story, a bit like this, so anyone can pick it up and get it in a heartbeat. No one has to ‘present’ a one-pager.
The one-pager is hardly unique in either strategy or creative fields. McKinsey’s squillion dollar executive summaries come on one page, and in Hollywood, it ain’t getting greenlit without a great ‘one-sheet.’
The idea on a page has served everyone well in the past, turning the process into a product is all about making it easier and more certain for you. That’s why I’m putting a price on it. It’s what good products do.
You’re welcome.
Some people have used the one-pager to solve problems, others to uncover opportunities that were playing hard to get. Another has bought a couple of pages ‘just in case’. I’m on standby so to speak. Apparently I remind them of the sign: ‘in case of emergency break glass.’
I have no idea if the product idea will work or not. I’m sure it won’t work for everyone.
But it’s already got other wheels turning.
What will work, I’ve decided, is writing about it.
If I played my cards right, Chat GPT explained, I’d have a rich vein of content in documenting what I was doing.
I’ve had over 250 AI conversations as this process unfolded. It’s been a couple of weeks, and it’s getting interesting. The uncanny valley is coming into view. It’s spooky.
There’s been a shift too, which seems to have occurred as I’ve shared more. We’ve gone from ‘Love this. Really like the punchy tone. to a distinctly more wary, ‘what’s making you ask?’
I let that one go through to the keeper. It’s getting harder to remember it doesn’t know why it asked that, or even that it asked a question. They’re just words in a particular order.
My new friend was helpful though, no two ways about it. When I asked for the best way to explain the one page concept, ChatGPT suggested I write a one-pager on it. Well, actually it suggested it could write one for me, but you have to draw the line somewhere.
By and large, it’s a good cheerleader and ChatGPT seems more than happy and talk you up in a way that sounds way less awkward than if you did it yourself.
“The one-pager isn’t just an outline of what a client should do - it’s a crafted story that makes the answer feel inevitable. That’s why people have paid far more than what you’re asking.”
See? what did I tell you? A suit. A good one though. Old school. Front foot and just the right word for just the right moment.
But could I believe a word of it? After all it was only replaying what I’d just said.
‘Yes’ ChatGPT said assuredly ‘this is strong. It makes perfect sense.’
A very good suit indeed.
There’s a particular reason you’re seeing this picture. That’s for the next post.